Tunisia lost 1-0 to Mali after a chaotic end to the match in the African Nations Cup today, Wednesday, as Zambian referee Jani Sikazwe ended the match before the time was up, and then tried to add 4 minutes remaining, but the Arab team refused to return.

At first, the referee, who participated in the 2018 World Cup, ended the match when the clock was pointing to the 85th minute after an error in estimating the time.

But after playing, Sikazoi repeated the mistake and ended the match before the 90th minute, despite stopping play for several periods in the second half and resorting to the video referee "VAR" (VAR) twice.

Tunisia coach Mondher El-Kabir and his staff strongly objected, during an outcry inside the stadium, to the referee, who left amid a security guard.

It seemed that the match would be completed long after the final whistle was sounded, in a strange scene.

Despite handing over the man of the match award and completing the preparations for the press conferences after the match, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to complete the remaining minutes of the match.

Mali players took to the field again 40 minutes after the start of the controversy, but Tunisia decided not to play and the referee ended the match for the third time.

🚨 The fourth official apologizes for the mistake and asks the players to return to complete overtime #African Nations_Cup |

#Tunisia_Mali#TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 |

#AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/gq8JlffMQF

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) January 12, 2022

Media reported that Tunisia asked CAF to replay the match.

"The players bathed in the snow for 35 minutes before being called to return to play again," Munther Al-Kabeer told reporters.

"I worked in training for a long time and I've never seen anything like this, until the fourth official was ready to raise the board (to show the minutes of overtime) and then the final whistle blew."

An arbitration scandal occurred in the Tunisia-Mali match

😱 The referee announced the end of the match before the end of the original time on two occasions D85 and D89 #African Nations_Cup |

#Tunisia_Mali#TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 |

#AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/auyygNQPHc

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) January 12, 2022

Tunisia's defeat to withdraw

Tariq El-Deeb, former director of the information technology sector in the Confederation of African Football, told Al Jazeera Net that the organizational and arbitration disasters continued in the continental championship during the last two days in a strange and suspicious manner, the last of which was today's match, Wednesday, which he expected the Tunisian team to consider withdrawing from it, and thus be defeated 2-0, according to for the list.

He indicated that he will not talk about the bad photography that everyone noticed, but will refer to what is happening inside the green rectangle, when the Gambian referee Bakari Gassama stopped the match between Egypt and Nigeria on Tuesday 3 times to change the ball, and this never happens at the level of international matches, in this sarcastic way that is not There is only one reason, which is that the referees did not test the balls before the match, as is followed in the protocol.

Al-Deeb, who participated in organizing and supervising 12 African Nations Championships, explained that the rule in CAF is that the referee checks all the balls on the field in the referees’ room and delivers them to the official an hour and a half before the official start of the match, but it is clear that he did not check the balls at all.

⚽️ Ball problems cause the match to be suspended several times #African NationsCup |

#Nigeria_Egypt#TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 |

#AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/moZbMOyFb3

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) January 11, 2022

Al-Deeb expressed his astonishment at the catastrophic mistake of ending the match before the end of its original time, which was committed by the referee today, Wednesday, in the match between Tunisia and Mali, stressing that controlling the timing of the match is a joint responsibility of all members of the arbitration team, led by the referee of the arena, and even the match observer who gives the kick-off to the referee as well. It is followed in the tournament.

He wondered how the correct timing of the match could miss all of these at the same time, even though the mouse referees screen is linked to the timing of the television stopwatch, and it was easy to avoid this disaster if they had paid attention and drew the attention of the referee, who acted very strangely, not worthy of a major continental championship such as the African Nations.

El-Deeb said that the CAF regulation complies with the provisions of the football law, and stresses that the match time is 90 minutes in two halves according to the law of the game, and also stipulates that in the event that the referee ends the match before the end of its original time for some reason, it is returned in full or completed as decided by the committee The Executive Committee of CAF based on the report of the referee and the match observer.

He added that what happened in today's match is a unique case, and the decision in it will determine what the match observer will write in his report.

The Mali national team 🇲🇱 returns to the pitch #African NationsCup |

#Tunisia_Mali#TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 |

#AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/dYtgR4bJQW

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) January 12, 2022

He expected the observer to write what everyone saw that the match ended about a minute before its original time, and the Executive Committee would take its decision based on the reason for not completing it based on the observer’s report, and that the match in normal circumstances is subject to a complete replay or to complete the time that was not played from it.

Al-Dib explained that if the observer mentioned that the Tunisian national team refused to return to complete it and financially go to the stadium, then it is more likely that Tunisia will be considered withdrawn and defeated 2-0, and this is expected to happen based on the data and observations that he followed.

📹 Match summary: 🇹🇳 0-1 🇲🇱

Bousso Monkoro's save from Tunisia's penalty kick and Ibrahima Kony's goal gave Mali a special start in the #AfricanNation_Cup2021#African NationsCup |

#Cameroon 2021 |

#TUNMLI |

@Football2Gether pic.twitter.com/zZMnWXVbXY

- Total Energy Africa Cup of Nations 🏆 (@caf_online_AR) January 12, 2022

2 penalty kicks

Prior to this controversy, Wahbi Khazri missed a penalty kick 13 minutes from time to miss a chance to equalize for Tunisia.

Striker Ibrahima Kone scored the game's only goal from another penalty kick due to a handball on Elias Sakhiri at the start of the second half after a lackluster first half.

The referee awarded a penalty kick to Tunisia after resorting to the video assistant referee after a handball on Moussa Djenebo, but goalkeeper Ibrahima Monkoro blocked the shot of the French Saint-Etienne striker Khazri.

Malian striker Bilal Toure was sent off for a violent intervention on Dylan Bron after the referee ended the match for the first time before reversing his decision.

And the victories continued with a score of 1-0 in the tournament, as 7 of 10 matches ended with this result.